BRAINTREE – A British preparatory school for international students is preparing to open a new campus on the grounds of the former Norfolk County Hospital in the Braintree Highlands, Mayor Joseph Sullivan said Monday.

Sullivan said CATS Academy Boston, a private school with three affiliated campuses in the United Kingdom, plans to invest $20 million to $25 million building new dormitories, sports fields and a gymnasium next to now-vacant hospital buildings on nearly 20 acres off Washington Street. He said the school, which is in Newton, hopes to welcome “a couple hundred students” onto its new Braintree campus by the fall of 2015.

The mayor and Town Councilor Dan Clifford, whose District 6 includes the property, will hold a town hall meeting April 2 to discuss the project with neighbors. Contractors hired by the school will appear before the town’s planning board April 8 to seek a permit for grading work.

“There is much to discuss,” Sullivan said.

The brick buildings at 2001 Washington St. were originally built around 1920 to treat World War I veterans with tuberculosis and later housed the Massachusetts Respiratory Hospital and the Norfolk County Hospital. But they have sat empty since Kindred Healthcare Inc. announced abruptly in 2008 that it was closing its 79-bed hospital, which had served patients requiring acute long-term care.

Kindred’s decision to close the hospital and sell the property initially angered local officials, including some who noted that the land for the hospital was originally taken from Braintree residents by eminent domain. But Sullivan said Kindred officials worked closely with the town after the closure to find a new use for the property that would not disrupt the neighborhood. He said some organizations that showed interest in the land, including other hospitals, were turned away.

“This one, I think, is a use that is appropriate and I think would add to the neighborhood,” he said of the school.

No one at CATS Academy Boston could be reached Monday night, but the school’s website says it offers “an American education embedded in an international community.” It says most of its students come from outside the United States.

Sullivan stressed that students at the school are not allowed to keep a car, which lessens the traffic it would bring to the Highlands neighborhood. He said the for-profit school would also continue to pay property taxes to the town.

Clifford first hinted at the deal Sunday night, posting an alert on his website promising “good news” about the future of the former hospital. He said the town was faced with a “very, very exciting” opportunity that could increase property values in the Highlands neighborhood.

The project would not affect the Highlands Community Playground, the forthcoming Braintree community arts center or the Braintree offices of the Norfolk County sheriff, all of which are located on parts of the former hospital grounds that the town has since purchased. The arts center, which will be inside a former home for the hospital’s doctor, is expected to open in September.

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